It’s pointless to use logic or try to have a rational discussion with the Palins of the world. So we should just make up fantastic lies that contradict each other and watch them try to make sense of it for a change.

The fun part is that interest has to be paid on the national debt, and every so often it has to be refinanced, and it gets sold at Treasury auctions – so the effective interest rate goes up as the price paid goes down. Currently, the total personal, income, and payroll tax take for the FedGov is about $1.5 trillion. Payroll taxes go for Social Security and Medicare – supposedly into “trust funds” but the money actually goes into the General Fund, and Congress does annual appropriations for these programs.

Payroll taxes account for about $500 billion, so total personal and corporate income taxes bring in $1 trillion. Right now, the interest paid out on the national debt is around 3.5%. It’s possible for that rate to increase, and quickly: in 1980, the interest on the national debt came to about 12%. 12% of $10.6 trillion is about $1.3 trillion. Spending in 2007 came to about $1.8 trillion, leading to about a $300 billion deficit. Suppose in 2008 spending is $1.8 trillion again, and in 2009 it is the same, and personal and corporate income tax revenues remain the same and do not decrease (which might not be the case in a recession, but…). So we have $1.8 trillion in spending, roughly $500 billion military, $800 billion for entitlements (Social Security, Medicare), $400 billion in interest, and $100 billion for the rest of the government in 2008.

Now, if the $400 billion in interest increases by $900 billion, the extra money has to come from somewhere.

1. Add it to the national debt, and the national debt increases to $14 trillion, if you add in the cost of the bailout of the mortgage bankers… So if you do that, you put off default on sovereign debt of the US for 1 or maybe 2 years.

2. You could cut Social Security and Medicare in half, and kill the Military budget, and you wouldn’t have to borrow any more money… but the consequences would probably be unpleasant in a number of ways.

3. Finally, you could double personal and corporate income taxes, and increase the eligibility age on Social Security and Medicare to, say, 75, and that would fix things. For now.

Suddenly, it’s kind of obvious why police officers from all over the country have come to St Paul to train…

As Palin is a dedicated proponent of forced births she either:
a.)refused to acknowlege that she had a choice even though she did have a choice or she
b.) knowingly exercised her right to choose (she made the choice to have the baby) as she seeks to deny others the same opportunity to make a choice.